In life, or in professional sports, it’s good to understand when to just issue the mea culpa and move on. It’s something Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers has yet to comprehend.
Flowers continued his offseason of deflecting blame for the Ravens’ past struggles onto anyone but himself during an appearance on the 4th and South podcast with former NFL players Jarvis Landry and Leonard Fournette, this time trying to rewrite history when it comes to his defining moment of Flowers’ career to this point — the 2024 AFC Championship Game.
Trailing 17-7 at the start of the 4th quarter, Flowers received a taunting penalty on Chiefs cornerback La’Jarius Sneed on a deep catch that brought the Ravens to Kansas City’s 10-yard line. His 15-yard penalty pushed them back to the 25-yard line.
Four plays later, Sneed stripped Flowers of the ball as he dove into the end zone to give the Chiefs the ball back, and Kansas City eventually won the game, 17-10, and went on to win their 2nd consecutive Super Bowl.
What Zay Flowers Thinks Happened vs. The Truth
Flowers fibs quite a bit in his retelling of what happened that day, but we’ll get to that in a second.
“I had 130 (receiving yards),” Flowers said. “You feel me? We had 4 more possessions after that. We got into the red zone 2 of them possessions. You could say I (lost the game) but it just looks like that because we got to the red zone on the last possession and kicked a field goal. At 1st I was like, ‘Damn, that’s not on you cuz’ … but if you’re a winner you’re gonna say it’s on you … and you know the internet gonna blow it up like ‘Oh, if you woulda scored,’ but bro I’m like you know we had 4 or 5 more possessions after (the fumble) and that was the 1st play of the 4th quarter.”
Let’s start to wade our way through what’s true and what’s not here.
First — Flowers did not have 130 receiving yards. He had 5 receptions for 115 yards and 1 touchdown.
Second — the Ravens did not have “4 or 5 more possessions” after his fumble. They had 2 more possessions.
One thing Flowers leaves out is that after the fumble, he slammed his hand into the bench and lacerated his finger. It was an injury that required stitches, and on a day when Flower seemed unstoppable at times, he didn’t touch the ball again after he hurt his finger.
Flowers Blamed Former Coach for Injuries
It’s not the 1st time that Flowers, a 1st round pick in the 2023 NFL draft, has tried to deflect blame this offseason.
Flowers also blamed injuries for the Ravens in recent seasons on former head coach John Harbaugh, saying that Harbaugh made practices too hard.
“Full pads all the time,” Flowers said. “However many practices in pads you can get, every single one. We’re doing 1-on-1s Week 17 … Low-key, that’s why we had a lot of injuries. Because of how we practiced.”
After the Ravens went 8-9 and missed the playoffs in 2025, Harbaugh was fired after 18 seasons in Baltimore and is now the head coach of the New York Giants.
Ravens WR Zay Flowers Continues Offseason Blame Game